Forum Discussion
Autosave makes Excel unresponsive every 2 mins
I have a XLSB file about 1MB in size. It is stored in OneDrive. AutoSave is ON.
If I work with it (change data, apply filters, change tabs) - everything is fast. But as soon as I stop (sometimes I have to think about my next move). After about 5 seconds of inactivity - I see the blue circle spinning, Saving... words in the Excel title bar. Excel is frozen for the next 5 seconds.
I get it. It is syncing my recent changes to the cloud. But hey... I am trying to work here... It is very disturbing to see the application frozen. And it is happening often. Like pretty much every time I stop making changes to Excel file.
If I turn off AutoSave - then no issue. But I like AutoSave. If I could control how often it syncs it to the cloud.
I've tried changing Excel Options in the Save section. Like Save AutoRecover Information every XX minutes. It does not seemed to effect how often the AutoSave is triggered.
Any advice is very much appreciated.
1 Reply
You may consider this:
- Open the File from the Cloud Path
- Instead of opening the file from your local OneDrive folder, open it directly from the OneDrive web interface.
- This ensures Excel uses the correct cloud path and avoids sync confusion.
- Ensure OneDrive Sync Health
- Open OneDrive and confirm the file shows a green checkmark (fully synced).
- If it shows syncing or error icons, resolve those first.
- Restart OneDrive or reset its cache if needed.
- Avoid Linked Files or External References
- If your XLSB file links to other workbooks, especially those also stored in OneDrive, Excel may freeze during AutoSave.
- Try breaking links or consolidating data.
- Disable Problematic Add-ins
- Go to File > Options > Add-ins, and disable non-essential add-ins.
- Some add-ins interfere with save operations and cloud sync.
- Use Excel Online for Light Edits
- If feasible, open the file in Excel Online for quick edits. It handles AutoSave more gracefully.
